Ireland records decade-high number of deals in ‘bumper year’ despite Covid-19

Flynn O’Driscoll Business Lawyers was the busiest M&A law firm, advising on 53 deals last year, while Arthur Cox advised on deals worth €34 billion.

In terms of volume, Arthur Cox advised on 47 deals, A&L Goodbody on 40, Matheson and William Fry on 35, McCann FitzGerald on 23, ByrneWallace on 16, Eversheds Sutherland on 14 and LK Shields and ReganWall on 13.

In terms of value, Matheson followed Arthur Cox with €27.8 billion, William Fry with €27.6bn, Weil Gotshal & Manges with €26.8bn, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom with €26.1bn, Stikeman Elliott with €26bn, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer with €25.95bn, Latham & Watkins with €25.7bn, Hogan Lovells with €25.6bn and A&L Goodbody with €7.1bn.

The latest Experian M&A report states: “The country’s economy has been among the fastest growing in the world in recent times – one of the few that looks set to return positive growth in a year blighted by lockdown restrictions – and the M&A market was no different, with deal volume rapidly recovering from a sharp dip in the second quarter to finish the year on a high.

“In all there were 490 transactions announced last year, up by almost eight per cent on the 455 deals carried out in 2019 – the highest annual figure recorded by Experian over the last decade.

“Meanwhile the total value of Irish M&A reached €55bn, down by almost a third on the €81bn worth of deals announced in 2019 but still representing a robust return in a year where multi-billion euro deals like the Abbvie / Allergan mega-merger that dominated 2019 were relatively rare.”